Classics

Classics is the study of the world of ancient Greece and Rome – the language (ancient Greek and Latin), literature, philosophy, history, and archaeology. Studying this world develops both your skills in close reading and analysis, whether of texts or of material culture, and your creative thinking and problem-solving abilities. The skills required to master this large body of material, and subject it to the rigorous but creative analysis needed to make the most of the incomplete record surviving from antiquity, are highly transferable.

At Cambridge, Classics can be studied in either a four-year or a three year course. It is a four-year course if you have not had the opportunity to study either Ancient Greek or Latin to A Level or equivalent standard. If you have taken either Latin or Greek, or both, to A Level or equivalent standard, then it is a three-year course.

What makes the four-year course different is that it involves intensive language study in both Latin and Greek. The first year of the four-year course is known as the 'Prelim' year: you learn a lot of Latin, a little Greek, and embark on the study of other aspects of Classics (literary study, history, philosophy, art, and archaeology). The first year for three-year students, and second year for four-year students, is called Part IA. Three-year students who have not done Greek before, along with the students who have taken the Prelim year, do intensive study of Greek, and all students cover a wide range of topics in literature, history, philosophy, art and archaeology, and philology and linguistics. The following year (Part IB) sees continued study of the languages along with your choice of other aspects of the course – you can continue to study the full range of Classics, or concentrate in particular areas of literature, history, philosophy, art and archaeology, or philology and linguistics. In the final year (Part II) you study subject areas of your choice in greater depth and can write a dissertation on any Classical topic you choose. You can also take one of a range of papers 'borrowed' from other degree courses.

At King's, we consider applications to the three-year course from those taking only Greek, as well as from those taking Latin or Latin and Greek.

For more information about the course and its modules, visit the University website.

Language learning is a significant element of the first part of the Classics degree and so as part of the Admissions process for Classics we assess your language skills to make sure that language learning is something that you would cope well and thrive with. 

Three-year course

One of your Classics Admissions interviews will be slightly longer than the other to give us time to assess your Latin (or, if you are only doing Greek, your Greek). You are given a very short passage of Latin, together with vocabulary, and some grammar and comprehension questions. We go through it slowly in the session, with one of the interviewers reading out a sentence of Latin, then asking you the grammatical questions which go along with that. These questions are less testing your knowledge, than letting us see how you can 'think with' the Latin. You may be asked to translate a phrase or sentence, or the interviewer might translate parts to or with you. There is an example of the type of material we use on the Classics Faculty website.

Four-year course

If you apply for the four-year course you have a separate session in the Classics Faculty for your language assessment, on top of your two interviews in King's. You are sent a short piece of reading before: you are not going to be tested on this, it is just to give you some background to the sorts of ideas which we might use. If you have studied Latin or Greek to GCSE (or to some level) we will – if it seems appropriate – look at some basic Latin or Greek sentences. Here, we are less interested in what you know than in how you can apply it. For the majority who have done no Latin or Greek, we look at material in English (and sometimes in other languages), to see how you can 'think with' grammatical ideas, spot patterns and show some attention to detail. It is about aptitude rather than knowledge and is also – crucially – to help both us and you see if that type of learning is something which interests you.

We are looking for submitted written work to reveal signs that you are facing up to issues and thinking broadly about them. We are not looking for whether you can hit A Level assessment objectives but whether, faced with an intellectual task, you can see clearly what is at issue and what needs saying. We would prefer your submitted written work to be on a Classical subject.

At interview, we are looking not for what or how much you know, but for what you can do with what you know. We will seek to explore with you areas that you have studied, and discover what you can do with your knowledge when we set it in a new context or ask you to use it to address a problem or issue you have not faced before. We want to know what you will be like to supervise, so we do our best to interact with you at interview as we will if you are offered a place. Unlikely as it might seem, most candidates really enjoy the interview experience.

Whether you are a candidate for the 4-year Classics course, having not done either Greek or Latin to A level (or indeed any level), or for the 3-year course, we want you to be curious about the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome (and their influential afterlives) and we are looking for students who are committed to studying them. We are also looking for attention to detail: whether you are learning Latin and Greek, engaging in close reading of texts, studying linguistic features or philosophical ideas or looking at visual material, it is important to be able to spot and make sense of details. How and why does this word, idea or image differ from that? What difference does this make in the larger scheme of things? But to make sense of these details you also need to apply your imagination. Just because others who have thought about a text or topic have given it one interpretation does not mean that your take is not a more productive one! We try to empower students to reframe issues and make new comparisons, by way of exploring with us why ancient texts, ideas, and images that were produced by and for individuals with complicated lives, are worth engaging with in the here and now.

The point of studying a subject at Cambridge is to challenge oneself intellectually, so expect to be challenged – but also to challenge.

You can find out more about Classics by visiting the University website and the Faculty of Classics website. If you are interested in exploring a subject you can study alongside Classics, you can read more about Modern and Medieval Languages at King’s.

King’s also runs Open Days and a number of residentials that give an opportunity to experience life as a King's student.